Quote:
Originally Posted by Klrdds
I also agree and it makes you wonder why not 1 but 3 of the most trustworthy and best dealers in the hobby would get out like this in such a rapid fashion and simultaneously . Maybe money really does talk ...unfortunately it never says much to me !
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With the advent of the TPAs, one aspect of the expertise by which these guys made a living--being able to judge whether an autograph is good or not--became less and less valuable to them as dealers and more and more valuable to the TPAs. As a result, in the last 15 years, as the marketplace came to embrace, then require, TPAs, those lines have crossed for one dealer after another, and this latest flood of dealers becoming authenticators feels like some kind of demarcation. With everything slabbed at shows now, after all, dealers need only the ability to find and buy autographs at less than a price guide tells them they can sell it for, no other talent required, they could be vendors of anything. Auctions and eBay bypass the dealer altogether. For a guy like Keating, being a dinosaur in this new age got to be more and more frustrating until they finally made him an offer he couldn't turn down, and he went with the flow.